N.A.B.F Jr. welterweight champion Francisco “El Gato” Figueroa from the Bronx grinded out a 12-round unanimous decision against Mexican Luis Rodriguez. The 29-year old southpaw Figueroa, 19-2, 13 KO’s, used a consistent workrate and pressure to harass the skinny 23-year old Rodriguez, 22-2, 13 KO’s.The stocky 5'6" Figueroa was much broader in the shoulders than Rodriguez in the ring. It has been reported that Figueroa trains all the way down from 170 Lbs and he mauled Rodriguez for most of the night. The fight was never in question as Figueroa dominated as a top heavy -1200 boxing betting favorite.

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With a hometown NYC crowd showing “El Gato” support, the Puerto Rican NY Golden Gloves champ gave Rodriguez a beating. In the 1st round Figueroa cut Rodriguez above the eye and dished out punishment all night long with bodypunches, right hooks and short lefts. Rodriguez tried to slip and move but Figueroa cut off the ring and never gave the Mexican an inch. Figueroa isn’t a one punch KO artist but he has grinding power and above-average handspeed. Rodriguez showed plenty of guts, but he never used his reach advantage. One flaw in Figueroa’s game is that he doesn’t have much of a jab to set his punches up with.

Around the 7th round Rodriguez started wilting under the constant pressure and avalanche of leather. Rodriguez was competitive but Figueroa was stronger down the stretch. Figueroa never floored Rodriguez in the bout but he had the Mexican hurt on several occasions. Final Scores Read: 118-110, 117-111 and 116-112. The final punchstat numbers had Figueroa outlanding Rodriguez 318 to 202 in total punches. The Over\Under on the fight was 9.5 rounds with the OVER at -240.

Figueroa prepared for the fight sparring with Shane Mosley in Big Bear California and it payed off. Figueroa has made improvement working with Buddy McGirt and should be regarded as a legit top-15 world contender. When I interviewed Figueroa earlier in the week he told me that he didn’t know a single thing about Rodriguez but that it wouldn’t matter. Figueroa adapted and made adjustments in this fight that were impressive.“El Gato” is very popular in England and if he can get connected to Golden Boy Promotions, he could get a dream fight with Ricky Hatton.